Kubermatic Open Sources Automation Platform for Kubernetes
Kubermatic, formally known as Loodse, announced it is making available a platform for automating the management of Kubernetes clusters under an open source Apache license.
In addition, Kubermatic released an update to the Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform that adds support for KubeVirt, an open source project that enables virtual machines to be deployed on top of Kubernetes.
Kubermatic CEO Sebastian Scheele says Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform provides a master control plane through which fleets of Kubernetes clusters running on multiple platforms can be centrally managed. Lifecycle management of Kubernetes clusters, including provisioning, scaling, updating and cleaning up of clusters, can all be automated via an application programming interface (API) call, he says.
Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform also provides access to logging and monitoring tools via built-in support for open source Prometheus and Grafana software.
Scheele says the goal is enable IT teams to manage Kubernetes clusters as a service at scale, including being able to set up high-availability instances of Kubernetes clusters. Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform can lower the total cost of deploying Kubernetes clusters by as much as 72%, he notes.
As more organizations are moving toward deploying more flexible and resilient cloud-native applications on Kubernetes clusters, the total cost of managing Kubernetes clusters is drawing more scrutiny. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, IT organizations that typically have limited Kubernetes expertise are looking for ways to automate the management of Kubernetes clusters at scale regardless of where they are deployed. In the short term, some organizations may pull back on adopting Kubernetes as a result of the current economic climate, but Scheele says in the long term it’s clear most organizations will be embracing Kubernetes as the de facto standard.
Many IT organizations will also be looking for a way to make Kubernetes clusters more accessible to developers via self-service portals that can be created using the Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform, Scheele notes.
Kubermatic also plans to make available an enterprise edition of its platform that it will support commercially.
In the meantime, as more mission-critical applications are deployed on Kubernetes clusters, Scheele says finding a way to operationalize Kubernetes at scale is becoming a more pressing issue. It’s not clear yet whether those clusters will be managed by DevOps teams or by dedicated IT administrators.
Regardless of who on the IT team is responsible for managing Kubernetes clusters, there’s a clear need to make them more accessible. The number of clusters any organization is ultimately willing to deploy depends on how simple it is to manage them. With the rise of tools such as the Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform, it becomes feasible for more IT teams to deploy Kubernetes clusters more widely. That’s especially critical as more IT organizations anchor evolving hybrid cloud computing strategies around Kubernetes clusters that can be deployed on-premises, at the network edge and in the public cloud.
Developers no doubt will soon force the Kubernetes management issue within IT organizations. As more applications are built using containers, the need for Kubernetes clusters becomes that much more apparent. The issue now is determining whether and how much automation can be applied to accelerate that transition.
